CFTC Chairman Giancarlo says cryptocurrency ‘is here to stay’

J. Christopher Giancarlo, the top derivatives regulator in the U.S seems confident that Bitcoin, while it will never replace the dollar it could achieve “significant adoption in the two-thirds of countries without stable currencies”.

In an interview with CNBC, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Giancarlo, states that cryptocurrency is “here to stay”. He also said:

“I personally think that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. I think there is a future for them. I’m not sure they ever come to rival the dollar or other hard currencies, but there’s a whole section of the world that really is hungry for functioning currencies that they can’t find in their local currencies. There’s 140 countries in the world, every one of them has a currency. Probably two-thirds are not worth the polymer or the paper they’re written on, and those parts of the world rely on hard currencies. Bitcoin [or another] cryptocurrency may solve some of the problems.”

Giancarlo clarified his initial statement: “We’re talking maybe 10 years down the road,”.

Giancarlo was nicknamed “CryptoDad” for his congressional testimony in which he recommended legislators not to ignore cryptocurrency simply because it’s more attractive to younger investors.

Nevertheless, his opinion is regulators should feel compelled to be very careful when approving cryptocurrency products even if this would mean the United States won’t be at the top of the list in every sector of the blockchain industry.

Regarding the expanding U.S. bitcoin derivatives market, Giancarlo said: “there’s no question that the United States is leading in a number of areas,”.

He also added: “but there’s other areas as well of innovation where I think it makes sense for us to take a little bit more of a thoughtful and intelligent approach, just as the U.S. Congress did 20 years ago in the early days of the internet.”